Held at the Roxbury Hotel in Glehe the seminar attracted a packed house, testimony to the ever rising interest there is in understanding proofing.

McCourt titled his talk ‘Bullet Proof Proofing’. He began by outlining the three main proofing sectors; contents, contract and imposition, then went on to talk in detail in the second of these, contract proofing. He outlined the inherent challenges in producing print from 4,000 colours when the human eye can see more than 10 million, and a colour transparency has more than six million.

A quick overview of the history of colour management, was followed by an outline of current rip vendors, and the controversial statement: ‘halftone dots – who needs them?’ Citing Show Ads decision to turn off all its halftone proofers McCourt claimed that while the US was ‘dot crazy” the Australian commercial market was not as concerned about the method of proofing, as against the quality of the actual proof itself. McCourt acknowledged that packaging and flexo work required dots.

McCourt then highlighted the ink jet proofing systems around, particularly ho0w drop on demand, had he said, ‘come to dominate the market’ in the last four years. Rival suppliers in the audience occasionally challenged McCourt’s viewpoint.

In a prize draw at the end of the presentation imaging studio Blow-Up won the use of a new Canon digital A3 proofer for the next six weeks.

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